Wattapad is to be acquired by South Korean group Naver. Naver owns both Line and Webtoons. This sends out a few signals. South Korea is pressing on with it’s efforts to become a global creativity hub. The extent of Korean soft power realized through content beamed into homes worldwide is not often appreciated. There is more to tech than tech itself. Welcome to The Sandhill.

Wattapad has around 90 Million viewers. It is a platform where audiences and stories come together through a mobile app. Many of it’s users are young people with a significant skew towards women(80%). This is extraordinarily clear in terms of served segments. Many of it’s writers are not known in the world of publishing. Yet it is proving a sleeper hit in countries like Philippines and India. Now, Wattapad authors are getting book deals from storied houses like Simon and Schuster. It has now formed it’s own book publishing arm, creating a bridge between the digital and physical world One might recall the Amazon vs Barnes and Noble saga. We all used to shake our heads in wonder. Amazon got it right. B&N got it wrong. Maybe so. But Wattapad has shown that the last line has yet to be written in that particular play. What will the big guy do? Will it even want to do anything? We shall see. A quick disclaimer-I used to own Line shares. I no longer do.

There are two interesting points that are being made here. Women, especially young ladies, are a force to be reckoned with. Many of them are using Wattapad to create their own communities of creative consumption. This is significant, given that some of the leading markets have been usually seen as deeply patriarchial. The question is, what are marketers and start-ups missing? In our quest for “solving problems”, are we missing out on leading indicators? This is not new. The industry did not understand mobile. It did not get SMS. It totally misunderstood the popularity of GCash and Mpesa. Then there is Bitcoin. So we have a long list of what we got wrong, the first time around. That is fine. We just need to be a bit more humble when we make those predictions for the year. I would like to see more products oriented towards younger people, older people, women, challenged people. Let’s have less of what we see in the mirror. In the long run, that will lead to diminishing returns and the mirror will crack. Diversity is powerful. Believe in it.

The second point is that South Korea is becoming a player of consequence in the global creative arts game. That must not be under-estimated. The power of visual and performing arts in economic and political exchanges is palpable. America is a living testament to that.  It is important to understand the enduring popularity of Korean content. No, it is not the whitening cream. Yes, it was K-pop- for a while. Korean film, drama and increasingly live shows address common sentiments and issues for people anywhere. There is little by way of a great nation or manifest destiny narrative. A lot of it has to do with people like us. Korean heroes are sometimes quite flawed and compromised. That they do excellent production quality helps. But their tales are universal. They are the real inheritors of the New Wave mantle. There is a lesson here again for us. Over time, there will be rivals to Korea. For now they are in the driver’s seat.

One must wonder what this means for Substack, Medium and Wordpress. But it should be a matter of interest, at least, that Wattapad has such a powerful female skew. There is a need to re-assess how we consider audiences. That can come only from a re-evaluation of how we study societies.

Have a great day.

Many thanks to Laura Chouette for a great pic on Unsplash.